The Girl Gamer
by Duckkun
Summary: In any MMO, there are expected to be many people playing as the opposite gender. There are some who do it as role-play. There are some who simply enjoy being different from their everyday life. But for Kotonashi Takeru, he despicably reaps the benefits of being a "Girl-Gamer", even in a death game... (Warning: some amount of YURI will be used)
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

* * *

The girl stood in fear under the giant hunk of armor that loomed above her.

 _The Executioner_ , it read—a level 45 floor boss of the 28th floor.

It carried a halberd—a 14 feet long axe-spear that seemed to penetrate the stone ceiling.

It was the first time anyone had ever faced this boss before, which was natural because she was with the front liners.

However, all those fabled "amazing, courageous, highly-skilled" players of the front line had all been hit by a massive stun attack delivered from the butt of the boss's halberd.

Only Yumari was able to dodge it, a casual player that had never been with a floor boss conquering party before, as well as being a celestial mystic—one of the strongest healing roles in the game, on top of having the lowest defense scaling of any classes.

Even the famous _Beater_ —the rumoured highest-skilled player in Sword Art Online, Kirito—had been hit trying to protect one of his friends.

And so this left Yumari—the only player in the room that could be one-shot by the boss—in the direct strike range of _The Executioner_ —completely vulnerable without any assistance for a solid three seconds.

 _Why was she in this situation again?_

Well, it all started when she met a couple of players from the small guild called _Fuurinkazan_.

Filled with a bunch of shut-ins and ugly dudes, they were the perfect group to party with because they were strong enough to boost Yumari in experience and gold and naive enough to believe that she was actually interested in them.

As one of the prettiest girls in the game, she only needed to rely on others, and she preferred to use nerds like these to get her to places.

Why not use any of the hot men that were constantly private-messaging her to gift her rare items and gold?

Well, let's just say that even though your body might change, your heart won't.

You see, when Kayaba Akihiko had gathered all of the players in the town of beginnings and announced the start of a death game, everyone was given a mirror.

And when they looked through their mirrors, they reverted back to their forms in the real world.

However, Yumari was not given a mirror.

She did not revert back to her original form.

For some odd reason, _he_ remained _his_ girl avatar.

So when Kotonashi Takeru asked the _Fuurinkazan_ guild to take him somewhere he could get the rarest items, he idiotically agreed to join them on a floor boss quest.

What he failed to tell them was that he was quite under-leveled for the boss, at only level 26.

 _Well, I guess this is my punishment for abusing this "glitch"..._

Takeru braced for impact as the halberd went down, and a loud _pang!_ resounded through the room.

* * *

 **So, this is just the prologue, but I'm planning on making this an ongoing**

 **thing. I'm also drawing the cover art for the story which will feature**

 **Yumari and Takeru separated by a thin wall.**


	2. Chapter 1

1

* * *

Kotonashi Takeru is a pervert.

Kotonashi Takeru is a loner.

Kotonashi Takeru has no friends.

The girls had always looked at him with disgusted expressions, the boys had always either wanted no connection with him or kicked him in the stomach behind the school until he coughed up blood, grasping for some resemblance of hope that he wouldn't end up puking in the toilet after school, that he wouldn't ponder whether or not to end all the pain he was enduring, that he wouldn't think about the death of his sister, or his parents' divorce, all for the sake of avoiding that empty void inside his heart that was latched onto him like teeth sinking into his flesh, tearing through his bones and into his chest.

He was the student in the corner of the class, sitting on the corner of his seat, lingering on the edge of his heart as he cried silently in his subconscious... except that's all bull.

Truthfully, Takeru's life was all he'd ever wanted.

As long as he had his computer, his internet, and his twisted world of online games, he could deal with any kind of social vice.

Even if his few days of school he'd attended were hell and filled with an anxiety too much to bear, he could look forward to meeting with his online friends, clearing dungeons with ease and relying on his max-level friends to get all the rare items he could ever need.

In the world of online games, Takeru was as popular as he could be.

Why?

Well, all he had to do was select _Female_.

* * *

A breeze came rushing in through the window and a smooth wave of particles brushed against Takeru's arm as the gray atmosphere of the outside world seemed to trickle into his room.

There was something about that day that scared him.

He should have been happy—overjoyed, even—but there was a nagging glitch in the back of his mind—a bug, in video game terms—both mentally... and literally.

Takeru had been waiting for this day for over two years, and although he was disappointed when he didn't make the beta-testing, he had somehow snatched a copy of the official release from the nearest store after standing in line for over twelve hours.

Granted, he may have cheated a bit, weaving his way through the crowd, dodging armpits and elbows with his abnormally small height, he was still able to obtain the Nerve Gear after heroically pummeling a man in his thirties and snatching the Nerve Gear from his hands, despite himself.

As soon as he had thrown his wallet at the store employee, he stashed the Nerve Gear under his jacket, ran out of the angry crowd, hiding the five-hundred thousand yen product, and darted away.

No one had stopped him—not because he successfully hid the Nerve Gear (anyone would notice someone hunched over a big box, high-tailing his ass out of the warzone)—but because there was an unspoken rule that you were never to stop or steal from another person who had obtained the rare item, which was apparently a rule that Takeru did not care for.

He'd laughed wholeheartedly and maniacally as he dashed home as fast as he could, wary of any individual that merely glanced at him as he crossed the streets of Tokyo.

As he reached his apartment building, Takeru relished the blinding, bright feeling in his heart as he slowly realized the extent of his luck.

He had attained one of the ten thousand copies of the Nerve Gear and its first full on MMO: Sword Art Online.

With this, he could experience the real MMORPG experience.

He could go questing, experiencing the beauty of a fantastical world, marveling at the grand picture of floating islands, massive structures of magical buildings, and giant creatures of mythical origins, dungeoning in the dark, mysterious caverns of catacombs, except for the simple fact that he didn't give a damn about any of that.

In a heightened jump of glory stemming from the fantasies of a pervert, Takeru flew up the stairs around the edge of his apartment complex and screamed in his head with a vulgar little voice, _Now I can finally be a girl!_

* * *

Takeru anxiously waited for the clock to hit 10:00.

He sat on his bed with the Nerve Gear in his lap, watching the digital clock as it ticked... one second at a time.

The servers were finally going to come online, and with the entire world watching the very first virtual reality MMO become a reality, Takeru felt nervous.

The glitch had begun to spread into the deeper parts of his mind, and he still couldn't find the reason for this reluctance to accepting joy.

Was he afraid of the new technology?

Did he feel guilty about the pre-made female character that he'd created in preparation for the game?

Was he simply nervous and excited for the launch?

None of these questions had an answer, and not a single part of Takeru felt secure.

He sighed.

 _Another five minutes._

 _I can't wait._

 _I can't wait._

 _I just cannot wait._

He tried to convince himself of his own excitement, and it actually began to work.

After all, he was about to experience what it was like to be, feel, and look like a girl… right?

He began to think.

 _You will be Yumari, the cute celestial mystic that likes to hang out with anyone and always makes clumsy mistakes._

 _You will be Yumari, the short, blonde-haired girl with small pigtails and a messy smile._

Takeru smiled.

 _You should be Yumari, and there is nothing wrong with that._

His phone buzzed.

He picked it up and peered into the digital screen.

A new LINE message had popped up.

He tapped the notification and read the message.

 _"I'm sorry about what happened. I'll come by and apologize later today. Do you think you could come to school again?"_

It was from Natsumi.

Takeru clutched his phone and gritted his teeth.

Apologize?

No.

He wasn't going to take an apology after what she had done.

No, he was done with the real world.

He was tired of all of it.

He was going to enter a better world today.

The glitch hid itself, and Takeru's nerves melted away.

The clock hit 10:00 and the boy placed the future on his head.

…

 _Link start!_

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Still working on that cover art. I got an entire story planned, so stay tuned.**


	3. Chapter 2

2

* * *

"Yumari, what are you even doing?..." He laughed lightheartedly, watching the girl fight a boar.

"Hiyah~!" She squealed as she hit the lvl 1 monster with her staff.

It bounced off the skull of the boar and barely did any damage.

All it did was make the boar mad, and it charged into Yumari, hitting her pelvis and sending her flying.

"Kyaa~!" She yelped and collapsed onto the ground, tumbling twice over her head and rolling to a stop on her back.

With a silent grace, a blinding ray of light shot down from the sky just as Yumari's skirt dropped, effectively censoring the view from the male player in her party.

"..." Hinomaru, a young brown-haired player wielding a short sword, blushed and turned away.

As the boar lost aggro, Yumari peeked over her skirt from her spot on the ground and her cheeks flushed.

She quickly picked herself off the ground and brushed off the dirt from her skirt.

"... Did you see?" She asked, her green eyes peering up from their sockets.

"N-No, I didn't see." He replied quickly, finding interest in a bird flying off in the distance.

"Really…?" Yumari puffed out her cheeks and regrettably muttered something about censoring.

"Did you… want me to see?" He asked timidly.

With a small puff of smoke emitting from her ears, Yumari's face burned red and she peered down at the ground.

"Maybe…" She whispered.

"What was that?" Hinomaru leaned in closer to hear.

Her cheeks puffed out.

"Idiot!" She yelled, exasperated.

Yumari hurled her staff like a spear at the innocent boy, and it struck him between the eyes, pushing his head back and sending him sprawling across the grass with a pathetic yelp.

 _Critical Hit!_ , it said above his head, and his health bar disappeared.

 _Shoot. I might have overdone it…_

Yumari yelped and ran over to the fallen player.

She quickly dropped beside him and located his health bar.

She saw nothing.

Then, she realized that there was still a tiny spot of green left in the bar.

 _Did I really do that much damage to him?!_

Yumari panicked and started yelling, "I-I'm sorry! Don't-don't panic, I'm going to heal you right now!"

"Heal!" She yelled, placing her hands above Hinomaru's chest.

Nothing happened.

"Recover!" She yelled again.

Again, nothing happened.

"Oh no! I'm sorry! I don't know how to heal!" Yumari's panic heightened, "I'll try to use the staff!"

Frantically grabbing the staff off the ground, she whipped it in front of her, accidently hitting herself in the face, and screamed, "Heal!"

…

The artificial birds seemed to chirp louder for a moment.

With a small voice, Hinomaru asked slowly, "Isn't there… no magic… in _SAO_?"

 _Ah._

…

 _But I'm a Celestial Mystic…right?_

"But that can't be right, I'm a healer…!" Yumari gestured chaotically.

He shrugged, which was a little awkward to pull off while on the ground.

"Could you just give me a potion?" Hinomaru smiled at her faintly, wincing through an imaginary pain.

"Um, yes..."

Yumari fumbled around for her bag, which lay at her side, straddled on her chest.

She located the opening and folded the leather back, searching for the cold touch of a health potion.

After a moment, a peculiar glass bottle filled with a red liquid emerged from the bag, and Yumari brought it to her companion's mouth.

"Here, drink this," she said, opening the cap and holding it to Hinomaru's mouth.

"No, it's fine, I'll do it by myself…" he wheezed, pushing the bottle back.

"No no, I'll do it for you. Just stay still…!" Yumari said, focusing intensely on the task at hand.

Hinomaru began to blush again as the girl leaned in close to pour the potion into his mouth.

Yumari got so close that Hinomaru could see each strand of hair on her head, each perfect virtual pore on her smooth skin, and her small pink lips, moist and glinting in the sunlight, letting out warm breath after breath as she carefully tended to Hinomaru.

Lost in a trance, he vaguely realized that Yumari's hand was propping his head up, and he blushed even harder, attempting to find somewhere else to look.

A sweet fragrance wafted into his nose and snuck up into his brain in the form of a tiny electric pulse, clouding his judgement and filling his head with a scarlet glow.

Suddenly, he was forced to stare into Yumari's eyes.

They were a deep bright green; nature churned over and over in her pupil, glinting and shining for the world to adore.

She was inexplicably beautiful, but not in the way female models and celebrities were―Yumari was just so overwhelmingly adorable that she had crossed the threshold to just being _cute_ and became something else.

As the last of the health potion was emptied, Yumari pursed her lips and lifted the bottle from Hinomaru's lips.

She sat back and looked at his half-recovered health bar.

"Um," Yumari held her breath, "How do you feel?"

"Ah…" Hinomaru sat up and shook away the trance.

He scratched his head and said, "I think I'm alright."

Relieved, Yumari sighed and replied, "Thank goodness. I don't know what I would have done if I had killed you by accident."

"Ahaha…" Hinomaru chuckled half-heartedly, "Yeah…"

A brief moment of silence passed before they moved again.

Hinomaru realized something.

"Wait, Yumari, how did you damage me? We're in a party, right?"

Yumari turned her head, "Huh? Party?"

"Yeah, I invited you to a par-" Hinomaru suddenly paused.

There was no party window where it should have been.

He slowly shook his head and exhaled. "You didn't accept the invite, did you?"

"Invite? What invite?" Yumari asked, clueless.

"The party invite that I sent you before we started fighting…"

It took her a second, but Yumari realized, "Ohhhh… _That_ invite. Sorry! I thought it was a friend invite!"

She clapped her hands together and apologized, closing one eye.

With another sigh, Hinomaru said, "You know what parties are for, right?"

Yumari nodded her head nonchalantly.

"They protect us from damaging each other," Hinomaru continued, "Without it, we wouldn't share the experience and gold from killing… monsters…"

He stopped.

After a moment, Yumari tilted her head and asked cutely, "What's wrong?"

Hinomaru realized something.

He was still level one, with zero experience and gold.

Yumari had insisted on finishing every last monster they'd killed, and, naturally, she had obtained all of the rewards for dealing the killing blow.

"Hinomaru? Is something wrong?" The innocent female player leaned in closer, "Are you lagging?"

"N-Nothing…" Hinomaru said quickly, looking at the ground.

"Nothing?" Yumari repeated, leaning in even closer, "Are you sure…?"

The boy turned away, "Yes…"

" _ **If you say so, idiot,**_ " she whispered slowly, her lips inches away from his ear.

After realizing how much of a fool he'd been, Hinomaru felt ashamed.

How much of Yumari was fake?

Was she even a girl?

Yumari reset her position and chuckled a little too light-heartedly, "Well, I think that's going to be it for the day. I'm worn out!"

She knotted her hands and stretched them up towards the sky.

"Are you going to continue playing?" She smiled at him.

"Actually, I think... I might go now," Hinomaru said abruptly, "I'm… not feeling too well."

"Aw, really? Are you okay? It must be the virtual reality…" Yumari laid her hand on his back and rubbed it.

"Yeah… It must be the… the uh… the VR that's getting to me," Hinomaru said, suddenly drained, "I'll see you later…"

"Will you?" The girl asked.

"I gue-"

"Well, I hope you feel better then! Goodbye!" Yumari picked herself up, let out an inaudible snicker, and walked away.

Dejected, Hinomaru opened up his menu.

As he looked for the logout button, he couldn't help feeling a little stupid.

What girl would even play this game in the first place?

Moreover, why would she choose some loser like him to party with?

He sucked at role playing games…

 _Well, it's about time I log out anyway._

 _Sis told me she'd peel the NerveGear off me if I wasn't out in time for dinner._

* * *

Yumari continued back to the Town of Beginnings and didn't look back.

As she broke into a violent fit of laughter, Hinomaru disappeared behind her.

He never found the button.


	4. Chapter 3

3

* * *

Yumari broke into a crooked smile as she walked through the city gates.

"First mission, success," she said rather wickedly.

She was feeling quite good about herself after deceiving Hinomaru.

It meant her acting had been spot on; she'd had him in the palm of her hand.

She merged through the crowd stockpiled in front of the "Newbie Stand", a nickname given to an NPC stand that handed out free guidebooks and sold starter items.

If you had no prior knowledge of SAO, this is where you would go to learn about all the different skill systems and combat sword skills as well as information on different monsters and even floor bosses.

Yumari, or Takeru, had already studied the game months before it was released.

He'd spent a long time listening to developer interviews, watching videos about the beta tests, and reading long paragraphs that explained the mechanics of SAO.

Being a fast and almost instinctive learner, he was able to apply everything he knew as soon as he had spawned into the world.

Therefore, Takeru had no need for any instructions.

He considered himself on par with a beta-tester's skill level, and despite having done his information search before logging in, his skill was not a result of his knowledge; he was simply a naturally skilled gamer.

As a result, Takeru had already planned his first few hours in SAO, and he was determined to take the character, Yumari, as far as he could—deep into the taboo of cross-gender roleplay.

Thus, Yumari, the female player, continued past the Newbie Stand and emerged into the main plaza.

Beautiful stone bricks lined the pillars and filled the ground, creating a grand sight and an appealing opening to the world of SAO.

Yumari walked straight through the center of the plaza and headed for Satou, the recruiter NPC that gave out the first quests of the game.

The quest that she needed to return was a simple kill quest that required the player to defeat five boars.

With Hinomaru's _much obliged_ help, she had been able to do this much faster than other players without a party, and it brought the opportunity to advance quicker than other players.

However, she didn't really care much about that.

Honestly, Yumari just wanted to break the poor guy's heart.

Takeru felt power when he was a girl in the gaming world, and Yumari was the perfect way to exploit that power.

 _Why do I do this?_

 _It's fun._

 _All those virgin losers playing games in their rooms all day… they bow down to me just because I look and talk like a girl._

 _It's hilarious!_

Takeru indulged himself in his thoughts and laughed under his breath.

He didn't notice the player that had tripped into his path until it was too late.

"Look out!" the player shouted just before Yumari's legs were swept out beneath her and she plummeted to the ground face first.

"Ahh!" she yelped, and her face met the stone with a thud.

Although there was no pain, the impact still jarred Takeru.

As Yumari's body flattened onto the floor, she heard the voice of a male saying, "Oowowow…!"

After sliding three feet past Yumari on his stomach, the owner of the voice quickly picked himself off the ground.

He rushed over to where Yumari lay on the floor.

"Um, are you okay?" he said tentatively at the body sprawled out in front of him.

Just as he leaned down to touch Yumari, she suddenly turned to face him and growled ferociously with the face of a very, _very,_ angry cat-like creature.

"You dumbass! Watch where you're going, you doofus-idiot brain-lacking virgin!" she exploded on the guy.

"What the hell are you thinking, trying to kill me or something?!"

Yumari, despite herself, screamed into the poor player's face at the speed of light, "Where has your brain gone? Did you sell it to buy some erotic magazines just so you could _enjoy_ yourself while you're rotting away in your lonely room with no friends or family or something? Or maybe your brain was so rotten that your sad little parents had to dispose of it before it rotted your entire body away until there was nothing but your tiny little _BEEP!_ and you'd have to just kill yourself!"

She rose to her toes and tried to make herself as tall as possible.

"You failure of a human being! Just go die in a hole somewhere and don't _BEEP_!-ing get near me! And **goddamn** **this automatic censoring**! Just let me say _BEEP!_ you stupid game!"

Every curse she attempted to spit out was cut off with a high pitched tone that drowned out the profanity.

After a few more seconds of fury, Yumari finally stopped her bombardment of insults, heaving heavy air in and out.

Despite her extremely harmful and energy-sapping comments, including the complete loss of air inside her lungs and the stress on her mind that left her lightheaded, she had failed to come off as intimidating, considering that she was about one and a half feet shorter than her opponent.

Instead, quite the opposite had happened.

Yumari slowly looked up to glare at the player's face.

Both of his hands were planted on his cheeks, squishing his wide open mouth into an oval shape, and his eyes sparkled in thousands of tiny lights.

"So-" he began, "So _cyuuuuuuute_!~"

He kneeled and patted Yumari's head.

"Omygosh, how do you look so cute?!"

He rubbed her head and sent strands of hair swinging left and right, "Hehehe… So soft!"

The miniature fluff of hair under his hand peered up, eyebrows raised.

"..." Yumari half glared, half goggled, at the guy, "Did you hear a word I said?!"

"Heh?" He sifted through her hair and grinned stupidly, "No, I heard absolutely nothing…"

He sighed blissfully.

"You- are you mocking me?" Yumari attempted to stare daggers.

"Mocking? Oh, I wouldn't dream of it," he heaved out, gradually sinking into the sensation.

At that point, her hair had become a cloud.

Somehow, the rubbing began to feel strangely comfortable; the monotonous, but also necessarily rough movement of hands melted into a soft encompassment of a sort of pleasure.

Suddenly, Takeru recalled a moment in his childhood.

For whatever reason, it felt as though the game itself had forced the memory to resurface.

* * *

A bath.

White, foaming around him, and through the sensation came other senses.

He was sitting.

The tight, restricting female clothes he'd been wearing melted away and replaced itself with a coat of water and bubbles.

He heard the echo of clatters, the scrubbing of his hair, and the soothing sounds of a voice...

 _It doesn't hurt, right?_ He heard.

 _Does it feel good?_

A small, seven year-old girl sat behind an even smaller Takeru.

She washed his hair with the technique of a professional.

Smiling, she listened to the boy's weak protests, who was unable to fully revolt against the comfort.

Their parents liked to send them in the bath to "bond" and take care of each other, but somehow it was always Natsumi that ended up giving Takeru a scrub-down while Takeru couldn't even operate the shower head.

Although he was older by a month, Takeru was much shorter than Natsumi.

When discussed by the people in the area, they were called the neighborhood Queen and the Prince because Natsumi acted a lot like his mother.

Natsumi was never embarrassed to be with Takeru—she was sure to be by his side wherever they were—but Takeru, on the other hand, grew red every time she did something to him.

He'd yell, "Devil! Demon! Go away!" as if she were an evil curse possessing his life, but his face would glow so red, so scarlet, that everyone imagined smoke leaking out of his ears.

It was the worst in the bath.

Takeru's entire body would flush a bright red, while Natsumi's care for her prince would leave the poor boy defenseless in the confines of the pink tiled room, water splashing its way into the nooks and crannies of the walls, floors, and corners as the naked children innocently washed their bodies.

It was a strange memory—nostalgic but spiteful.

Why it had popped up then, Takeru hadn't the slightest idea, but he could feel everything so real…

 _S-Stop!_ Takeru would protest.

 _Hehehe! But you're so cute!_ She would answer.

And secretly, the small boy would smile inside.

* * *

You'd think Yumari would be the one to stop the hair petting, but she was locked in a trance.

The male player finally realized that his actions were a little strange.

"Oh!" he yelped and took his hands off, "Sorry…!"

Takeru suddenly ejected out of his memory and returned to Yumari's body.

She looked up at the guy, anger gone from her eyes.

"No… it's fine," she said, "Do you usually start rubbing the crap out of someone's hair after sprinting into them?"

"Ah, ahem, no, not usually," he replied, blushing.

Yumari fiddled with her hair, attempting to fix it, but failed miserably.

She tried once again, but the strands still stood strong.

"Ah! Screw it!"

She swung down her menu and quickly tapped up a storm.

Within a few seconds, a small flare of blue particles shimmered on her head and her hair was suddenly redone; a few blonde streaks of hair wrapped themselves up into two little pigtails while the rest fell down behind her neck.

Yumari flipped her hair up and let it fall as an attempt to undo the impression she'd made on the player, applying seducement rule number one - always display your appealing parts.

In this case, her hair was obviously something that this player was interested in.

Flipping up the hair would showcase the beauty and quality of the hairstyle, while possibly spreading its scent into his nose.

Yumari smiled.

It was surprisingly easy to get into a guy's heart if you knew how they thought.

The male player widened his eyes.

"Wow!" he exclaimed, "You can even do that in this world?"

"Do what?"

"That little hair reset thing!"

A little put off, Yumari replied, "Yeah, of course."

"That's amazing!" he said, "How do you do that? That's so useful."

"It's just a thing you can use in the character tab. There's a button."

"Um," he swung a finger around in front of him, trying to open the menu.

Yumari sighed.

"...Swipe down."

"Oh."

He swiped his finger down on the menu button and gasped like he'd done something unspeakable… then froze, looking confused again.

He looked up at Yumari with a little dog face.

"Are you dumb...?" she asked, unsurprisingly unsarcastic.

"...Select _Character_ ," she sighed out.

The player, wearing a face of determination, hesitantly tapped on the virtual button.

With pursed lips, he navigated the menu carefully.

"So then I just use this _Restore Outfit_ tab?" he asked.

"Yes."

He tapped on the button and he shimmered with blue particles.

As the game cleansed his appearance, the dirt on his clothes disappeared, and he generally looked cleaner - a fresher version of himself.

"Wow!" he exclaimed, staring down at his hands and arms.

"If only it were that easy in real life," he said, "I wouldn't have to spend so much time in front of the mirror."

Yumari raised her eyebrows.

"You spend a lot of time in the mirror?"

"Well, kind of…?"

He chuckled like he'd made some kind of mistake.

Yumari decided not to judge him and honestly didn't care.

As she was about to end the conversation, she suddenly realized something.

She had completely broken character.

 _What the hell? Why is this guy throwing me off my tracks?_

She had spent so much time in the VR custom world, practicing her persona, nailing her smile into the camera, and adjusting it so many times, that she could draw it out masterfully, despite never touching art before.

She'd thought up situations in her head and came up with several hundred different reactions to their respective scenarios, making sure to practice each and every one of them with the same picture perfect smile etched into her mouth.

She had even gone so far as to create and memorize catchphrases and signature poses for her character, such as making a "peace" sign over her head and executing a little hop in the air almost like she was imitating a bunny.

So why was this girl-guy taking her persona for a spin?

He reminded her of someone in a strange way, but it felt so…off.

It wasn't just his strange attitude and demeanor that was getting to her.

It felt like she was talking to someone he loved and hated at the same time.

Takeru felt a chill down his spine, and it wasn't because of the virtual wind pushing against Yumari's back.

"Anyway, I gotta hop!" Yumari popped back into action, "I got some things to do!"

"Ah! Wait please!" The guy grabbed her hand as she tried to take off.

"C-Can you please teach me how to play this game…?" He asked timidly, eyes flickering, pink lips glaring against the sun, "I… I just logged in from my brother's account. Even though I don't play many games, I really wanted to try this one out."

His hand quivered a little, a firm but anxious hold, while the other hand was clutched weakly on his chest as if he were keeping his heart from dropping out.

Yumari winced at the sight of such femininity exuberating from a male.

Her feelings shriveled and convulsed at the sight, one side of her completely grossed out, and another side screaming "MOE!" at the top of her lungs.

"I…"

"Please?...!" The player tightened his grip on Yumari.

Strangely, she started to feel sorry for the guy.

 _What is this…? Feminine charm? No… It can't be that. That's right. He's just a puppy, a lost puppy, and I'm only helping him because I'm the kind little Yumari._

"Okay! I'll help you!" she said, just like a kind little Yumari.

"Thank you very much!" the guy bowed a little and grasped Yumari's hand with both of his, "...But um… Why does your face look so mad?"

"Huh? What do you mean?..." she smiled at him with a quivering eyebrow, veins popping out of her forehead, "My face is _**perfectly fine**_."

"Uh huh…" he answered, confused but not fazed, "Well okay! Where do we start?"

At this point, Yumari realized that she had gotten herself into a very undesirable situation.

A very undesirable situation.

She sighed.

 _Ah, screw it. Screw the act, he doesn't even react to it. I'll just help him out a little then ditch him. God, I can't believe I'm doing this._

"Okay," she sighed, letting the anger seep out, "this is your first time playing, right?"

"Yes."

"You've never watched any videos or anything before?"

"Unfortunately, no. I don't really play video games that much."

Yumari sighed. "Alright, it looks like I gotta start from the beginning."

"Do you know what R-P-G means?"

"Oh, yes, yeah, I know. It means 'rocket-propelled-grenade' right?" He said.

"Uh... no. It's role-playing-game. What, do you watch a lot of American war movies or something?"

"Ahaha... My dad is a military nerd, so he tells me a lot about guns. Sorry." He blushed, "So role-playing-game… What exactly does that mean again?"

Yumari thought a little. "Well, let's just say it's basically a game where you defeat monsters and level up as you progress in the game."

"Okay?" He still seemed confused.

"Um… You hit monsters until they die and then you get stronger."

"Oh, okay."

 _How unfamiliar with games is this dimwit?_

"So, first thing's first…"

* * *

After Yumari finished explaining the basics of the game to the player, he introduced himself as Kiruta.

He had just come home from school and heard that his brother had bought the NerveGear, but was busy at work.

Kiruta had taken it upon himself to test the console out before his brother came home.

Yumari listened to his story with an irritable expression on her face, tapping her feet increasingly faster as he went on.

Eventually, she stopped Kiruta in the middle of a sentence, imploring him to shut up.

"Okay, let's just move on, alright?" she said, exasperated.

After having moved to the side of the plaza to talk a little, they once again made their way through the player-infested area to the NPC called Satou—Yumari's original destination.

As they approached the northern entrance of the plaza, Yumari saw a line of players standing in front of Satou.

The blonde-haired knight was conversing with each player one-by-one, handing out rewards and giving instructions.

The NPCs in Sword Art Online were only able to handle talking to one player at a time, which meant popular NPCs were often queued up with players.

While many people considered this to be a nuisance and "poor game design," Yumari actually liked this feature, as she could interact with the lined-up players.

It gave her more opportunities to lure in newbies and practice her charm—an activity that felt quite vitalizing to Takeru.

The two approached the line while Kiruta fiddled a little with his brown hair.

Glancing up at the six foot tall hunk, Yumari wondered why Kiruta made his player model so handsome.

The sharp angles on Kiruta's face and the chiseled collarbones under his revealing neckline looked much too masculine for his personality.

He had some serious muscles under his tunic, and Takeru could picture him as some high school jock—the kind he hated most.

However, Kiruta's strange feminine attitude really skewed the impression that he discharged.

It was like watching a man dance around in a wedding dress.

Somewhat disturbing.

"So Yumari... Why are we lining up again?"

"You're going to accept your first quest."

"Oooh!" Kiruta perked up, "What's a quest?"

With a small facepalm, Yumari sighed.

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

The virtual sun was beginning to set behind the distant mountains as Kiruta was finishing up the last of the slimes.

Wielding sword and wooden shield, Kiruta had already gotten a feel for the game, utilizing his sword skills to slice through the gooey monsters.

It was surprising how effective he was at switching between defense and offense.

With furrowed eyebrows and a familiar determination, he raised his shield to deflect a blow from the slime, then came around with his sword arm to hack the slime in half.

"Hyah!" He yelled and activated a sword skill, empowering the blade in a red glow as it sliced straight through the slime.

In an explosion of blue polygons, the slime disintegrated into the air and an icon appeared, rewarding experience and the final piece of "Slime Goo" they needed to finish the quest.

"Whew!" Kiruta said and wiped his brow, "I think I'm getting the hang of this!"

Staring at the slightly invigorated Kiruta with raised eyebrows, Yumari replied, "Yeah. You're actually not that bad at this."

Before she had realized it, Yumari had ended up in a party with Kiruta.

She didn't quite understand it herself, but Kiruta felt different from Hinomaru.

Yumari realized that it was the connection between them that did it; it felt real, rather than just an act.

Takeru had stopped trying to put on the Yumari facade (mostly because it didn't affect Kiruta at all), and it was making him a little calmer.

All the stress he had been building up from school and his family and Natsumi subsided as he watched Kiruta smile whole-heartedly.

 _Natsumi, huh?..._

Takeru thought about her.

Her scarlet brown hair.

Her soft hugs.

The way she used to give him those warm smiles was the thing he liked most about her.

Takeru remembered the way he would tense up every time she hugged him.

He would turn bright red every time she kissed him on the cheek.

The days when they were just tiny little kids were the best days of his life.

…

But he couldn't forgive her after what she did.

There was no way in hell she was the same girl that she was 10 years ago.

Right now, Takeru was going to focus on himself.

He was going to be the best girl that ever lived.

Yumari opened her mouth to speak just as the light began to surround them.

"Kiru…ta…?" she faltered, a swirl of bright blue light shooting up around them.

"Wha-... Ehh?! What's going on-" Kiruta questioned before being whisked away by the light.

Yumari panicked a little, waving her hands in an effort to swipe away the light.

 _Eh…? Ehhhh?!_

She closed her eyes and blocked the blinding light with her arms.

* * *

Yumari and Kiruta, along with thousands of other players, were transported to the Town of Beginnings to be introduced to a mysterious GM.

This GM set forth the death game that was known as Sword Art Online—a game where one's life was always on the line.

Along with Hinomaru, a couple hundred players had already died because of families and friends forcefully removing the NerveGear.

Amidst the chaos, Yumari and Kiruta had looked at each other, an unusual understanding coming between the two.

 _This was real, there was no going back, and they might never see their loved ones again._

And when the mirrors had emerged, turning the appearances of all players into their real selves, Yumari had not changed.

She had remained the cute celestial mystic that likes to hang out with anyone and always makes clumsy mistakes—the short, blonde-haired girl with small pigtails and a messy smile.

Takeru had gotten his wish to experience what it was like to be a girl.

Perhaps he would have been a little happier and a little more carefree if he hadn't looked up to see Kiruta's real appearance.

And perhaps he wouldn't have lost his life in the death game called Sword Art Online if he hadn't peered up to see his childhood friend Natsumi staring right back at him, the username "Kiruta" hovering right above her.


End file.
